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MELLBY GÅRD JORDBRUK
Continuous efforts
to make production
more circular
In 1986 Rune Andersson bought the agricultural and forestry business
Mellby Gård, south of Hässleholm in Skåne. But it was a pure
coincidence that he ended up with that particular farm.
Towards the end of 1985, Rune Andersson called a real estate
agent to see if there were any farms for sale in Skåne. ‘If you’d had on the prices of inputs, energy and feed, we held off on major
called me three weeks ago, I would have had a good offer for
you,’ the agent replied. ‘I've just sold Mellby Gård, a fine farm, at a
good price.’
“We lived in Trelleborg at the time and were looking for a farm in the
countryside,” says Rune Andersson. “I’d had trotting horses for many
years and was interested in doing something of my own involving
horses and hunting. I hadn’t yet taken my hunting exam, but had a lot
of friends who hunted.”
A few weeks later, the agent called back. ‘You’re in luck,’ he said.
‘The buyer of Mellby Gård has pulled out – you can take over the deal’.
“I hadn’t heard of Mellby Gård, so we went there and quickly
discovered that it was exactly what we were looking for,” says Rune
Andersson. “So it was pure coincidence that we ended up with Mellby
Gård. And the deal had already been fully negotiated. We didn’t have
any plans to settle here, but in 1997, when all the children had moved
out, we moved here.”
RESPONSIBLE ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
“The fact that we’ve had animals, mainly pigs, on the farm is due to
a sense of responsibility,” says Rune Andersson. “As the owner of a
farm with such large fields, you can’t let everything lie fallow. I had no
expectations that it would be particularly profitable. We made some
calculations and chose the least bad option from a financial point of
view, namely pigs, and it’s worked out well over the years.”
When Rune Andersson bought Mellby Gård in 1986, the property
was 550 hectares; today it is 2,300. If you include the land in Örmo
Skogar near Konga, Tingsryd municipality in Småland, the total area
is 7,800 hectares.
INVESTMENT IN SOLAR PANELS CONTINUES
Petter Beckman, who is responsible for operations at the farm,
describes a turbulent 2022 that limited opportunities for major
initiatives and investments.
“Considering the global turmoil and the inflationary effects it has
investments in 2022,” he says. “However, we’ve decided to continue
investing in solar panels. In the forthcoming expansion, we’ll be
increasing capacity to 400 kW, making us around 45 percent self-
sufficient in terms of electricity consumption on the farm.”
CIRCULAR BUSINESS CONCEPT
Mellby Gård works continuously to make its production more circular.
Wood chips from its own forest are used for heating, and locally
produced grain and by-products from the food industry are used as
feed. Fertilizer for the grass in the pastures is taken from their own pigs.
“We worked with piglet production for many years, but we stopped
breeding them in 2021,” says Petter Beckman. “Instead in 2022 we
produced fattening pigs, a business activity that works well and that
we’ll keep on working with. Overall, we delivered about the same
number of fattening pigs as last year, about 17,000, while the number
of suckler cows was 175. We also have about 130 fallow deer, with their
young being sold to Eriksberg.”
“Where real estate is concerned, we’ve been cautious because
prices have been high,” he says. “We’re continuing to work towards
creating an even more cohesive unit and are always interested in
adding properties adjacent to our lands.”
“2022 has been a profitable year for the forest, with record levels
and felling in excess of growth,” says Petter Beckman. “When
prices fall, we slow down the pace so that over time, we fell in line
with growth. Both timber and pulp prices remained at good levels
throughout 2022.”
Petter Beckman,
Operations Manager
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